America is in peace discussions with the Taliban, the Afghan president has
said, in the first official confirmation of direct contact between the foes.

Hamid Karzai said "foreign militaries, especially the United States of America, are going ahead with these negotiations", confirming speculation that the US was pursuing its own initiative to find a political settlement to the decade-long war.

Speaking in Kabul, he said: "Peace talks have started with [the Taliban] already and it is going well."

American State Department officials have reportedly met former Taliban functionaries face to face with trying to reach the movement's fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The Afghan government has made overtures to the Taliban for years, but these have been rebuffed partly because of the lack of foreign involvement, diplomats have said.

The insurgents see Mr Karzai's government as a powerless puppet regime, backed by an occupying army. Direct US involvement is now thought critical by many advocates of talks because few of the insurgent's demands are in the gift of the Afghan government.

Only the White House can determine the presence of foreign forces or permanent American bases, as well as the fate of Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

Previous international efforts to contact the Taliban high leadership have foundered on an inability to reach anyone who has the confidence of the Taliban leader. In one notorious case last year a man claiming to be senior leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour was in fact an impostor and walked away with a large sum of money.

Now American envoys are reported to have met Tayeb Agha, a former close aide to Mullah Omar, several times in Qatar.

Diplomats have stressed that the contacts are at the earliest stages, however, and nothing of substance has yet been discussed. One senior diplomat in Kabul told The Sunday Telegraph: "Lots of people are talking. The net is closing and some of the minnows have been discarded.

"There's some sense that the Taliban are thinking about talks, but there's no serious load-bearing negotiations. We haven't seen a Taliban team come up with a set of demands, or a list of confidence-building measures, or a timetable for negotiations."

Sceptics point out that the coalition appears far more willing to negotiate than the insurgents, who have publicly rejected talks so long as foreign troops remain in Afghanistan.

Violence remains at record levels in the country, with May considered by the United Nations to have been the bloodiest month on record for Afghan civilians. At least 368 were killed and nearly 600 wounded - around four-fifths by insurgent violence.

Hours after Mr Karzai's remarks, up to four Taliban suicide bombers in military uniform attacked a police station in central Kabul. Five civilians, three policemen and one intelligence officer were killed.

American involvement in talks reflects a sea change in US policy in the country. With growing opposition to the war, Barack Obama is wary of becoming trapped in a quagmire and America has abandoned previous objections to talking to the Taliban leadership.

In February Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, announced that a diplomatic surge to find a peaceful settlement would now be a cornerstone of efforts to stabilise the country and withdraw 140,000 Nato-led foreign troops. She likened the need to talk to Ronald Reagan's decision to "sit down with the Soviets".

"I know that reconciling with an adversary that can be as brutal as the Taliban sounds distasteful, even unimaginable," she said at the time.

"Diplomacy would be easy if we only had to talk to our friends. But that is not how one makes peace."

Abdul Hakim Mujahid, deputy chair of the High Peace Council which Mr Karzai appointed to try to find a settlement, said he welcomed American participation.

But despite Mr Karzai's claims that Afghan efforts were proceeding well, Mr Mujahid said they had stalled over a Taliban request for diplomatic recognition for them to open an embassy-style office in a Gulf state, where they could meet foreign envoys.

America and the Afghan government had baulked at formally defining the Taliban as a legitimate, official alternative to the Kabul administration.

He said: "Real power is in the hands of the world community and all of the obstacles are in their hands, the obstacles to be removed are not in the hands of the Afghan government." He described direct US contact with Tayeb Aga as "helpful", adding that Hafiz Aziz-ur-Rahman, a former diplomat in the Taliban's Abu Dhabi embassy, was also present.

Mr Agha was a long-time close personal aide to Mullah Omar and speaks English and Arabic. A school friend from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan described him as "well-educated" and "sensible". His father was a noted anti-Russian resistance fighter around Kandahar in the 1980s and both are considered to be close to Pakistan.

Mr Mujahid said: "He is still very close to Mullah Mohammad Omar, it's a good sign. Not only close to Mullah Omar, but also close to Pakistan." Pakistan had helped "indirectly" to forge the contact, he believed.